2.2 General things to keep in mind

In his book "How to Solve It" the mathematician George Pólya suggests these steps for solving mathematics problems:

If you cannot solve the proposed problem, look around for an appropriate related problem:

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  work backwards

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  work forwards

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  narrow the condition

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  widen the condition

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  seek a counterexample

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  guess and test

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  divide and conquer

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  change the conceptual mode